Spikers Choke, Succumb To Springfield at ECVL's

In what Harvard coach Roger Martin termed "the most embarrassing display of Harvard volleyball in the last six years," the spikers gave up an 11-0 lead, and lost to Springfield College, 15-13, in the quarterfinals of the Eastern Collegiate Volleyball League Open Tournament held this weekend at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, N.J.

After making an impressive performance in the round-robin preliminaries, the spikers came out charging against the Chiefs, led by the strong serving of Brad Martin and Rich Rohan. The Crimson seemed headed for certain victory when, according to Martin, "the greatest choke in Harvard volleyball history" occurred.

"We slowed down and let the tide turn against us," Martin said. "They served aggressively, and our bumping was terrible."

The spikers played tentatively gaining the 11-point advantage, and the "four points we needed didn't happen," he added.

Co-captain Tom Houlihan attributed the loss to overconfidence on the part of the whole team. "Everybody had a chance to score points, and everybody blew it," he said.

The loss was especially disappointing because of the team's strong performance in the early part of the tournament.

Placed in a four-team round robin with Cornell. Army and Albany State, the spikers finished with a 3-3 record after two games with each team.

The Crimson lost two to Army by scores of 15-8 and 16-14 before rebounding to wipe out a "better than the score indicated" Albany State, 15-5, 15-0.

Hot off the Albany State wins, the spikers roared to a 15-1 shellacking of chief Ivy rival Cornell. The Big Red struggled back in the second game to pull out a 15-13 victory.

The .500 record in the round robin earned the Crimson a fifth-place seed in the 12-team tournament, which was impressive considering the absence of co-captain and All-East standout Terry Trumbull, who was out with a sprained knee.

The senior hitter, who leads the Harvard offense, is scheduled to return to action April 4 when the spikers face Yale and Albany State in a tri-league match.

Houlihan was heartened by the team's play in the round robin, saying. "Our performance in the early games showed that we are a strong team even without Terry."

Hitters Jon Tanakea, David Coatsworth and Kevin O'Sullivan played well, taking up the slack in the Crimson offense.

The absent Trumbull, however, had little to do with Harvard's dismal showing in the quarterfinals, which displayed the awesome force that momentum plays in volleyball. Houlihan said, "We had some problems with their topspin serve, but mostly we let up some, lost our momentum, and it was all over."

Coach Martin observed. "We knew it was going to be tough without Terry, who's probably the best player in New England, but in that last game, we just choked plain and simple."

THE NOTEBOOK: The spikers' record now stands at 3-1, the team's only loss of the year coming at the hands of Army, which the Crimson will get another crack at in early April... Harvard will host the Ivy League volleyball tournament at the IAB April 18 and will probably find Cornell its toughest rival. Both teams are 3-1 and have beaten the other Ivy contenders. Penn and Princeton. With a healthy Trumbull, the Crimson should be an odds-on favorite.